The Stolen Dance
by The Bad Wolf Who Waited
Summary: (DW/Captain America crossover) Steve Rogers has lost all hope of seeing the woman he loves again, until a certain blue box appears in his room... One-shot. Rated T because I'm paranoid.


**This is my first ever crossover fic, so I have no idea if it's any good or not. I decided to post in both the Doctor Who and Captain America sections because I felt the story would be a bit lonely in the actual crossover section... Please read and review :)**

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_You've been asleep, Cap. For almost seventy years._

Steve Rogers lay in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Almost seventy years. The last thing he remembered was crashing Johann Schmidt's ship into the ice, and the next thing he knew, he woke up and it was the twenty first century. That had been that afternoon. And yet the events of his 'last' fateful day, now long gone, seemed like only yesterday. It was, really, in his head. It had only really been a day since he defeated one member of Hydra after another, since Schmidt and the Tesseract went missing, since Peggy had kissed him. Peggy...

He'd had a date. Long, long ago, there was somewhere he was meant to be. He was supposed to be learning how to dance, he was supposed to be with Peggy.

_We thought it best to break it to you slowly_.

Steve punched his pillow angrily before burying his face in it. Fat lot of good that was, breaking it to him slowly. It didn't bring him back to where he was meant to be, or the people he was meant to be with.

A strange noise filled Steve's ears all of a sudden. It was like nothing he'd ever heard before. He lifted his head to see a large, blue box in the middle of his room. Curious, he sat up and took a good look at it. There was a light at the top, and above what appeared to be doors it read "Police Public Call Box". It was an unfamiliar sight.

The door to the box swung open, flooding Steve's room with a warm, yellow glow. Stranger than the box itself was the man who stepped out of it. He was very unusually dressed; he wore rather short trousers, boots, a tweed jacket, braces and a bow tie. His hair flopped over to one side and a grin was spread across his face.

"Hello," he said. "I'm the Doctor." Steve sat, dumbfounded.

"Doctor who?" he asked.

"Just a friend, passing through. Anyway! I heard you had a date," the Doctor replied.

"How did you?..." Steve trailed off. The Doctor pulled what looked like a wallet out of his jacket pocket.

"Psychic paper. Picks up distress signals every now and again, you know, when someone really needs my help," he explained. "It's not every day I pick up a signal this strong. And it's travelled a very long distance... Must be one hell of an important date."

"Yeah," Steve breathed, still shocked.

"Well, come on then! I doubt you're going to miss it, are you?" the Doctor asked cheerfully, stepping aside and gesturing to the door.

"Sorry?"

"You, date, go on," the Doctor said. "I'm going to bring you!"

"Thank you for the offer, sir, but it's impossible. My date was nearly seventy years ago," Steve explained sadly.

"What's your name?" the Doctor asked suddenly.

"Steve Rogers." The Doctor grinned again, excited.

"Steve Rogers? As in _the_ Steve Rogers; Captain America?"

"Yeah," Steve mumbled.

"Well then, Captain. Are you coming or not?"

"I - I don't understand," Steve replied, confused. The Doctor sighed.

"Just come inside," he said.

Steve got up slowly and walked towards the box. He'd just look in, he decided, there was no need to actually enter. Cautiously, he peered inside. He immediately withdrew his head and looked at the exterior of the box.

"It's..."

"Bigger on the inside!" the Doctor finished.

It was incredible. On the outside it just looked like a big, odd box. The inside, however, was very different. It was huge, for a start. There was a large main room, with a very strange looking pillar in the middle of it. The pillar was covered in switches, levers, buttons, screens and everything one could think of. There were staircases and passageways that led away from the room, but Steve couldn't see where they led to. The walls were an orangey-brown colour and the floor was blue. The entire room seemed to glow, and it all looked so... alien.

Steve didn't realise he'd walked into the room until the Doctor spoke to him from the doorway.

"It's called the TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space," he explained.

"What is it?" Steve asked.

"It's a spaceship of sorts. It can travel anywhere in the universe. But it can also travel in time." Steve looked at him in shock.

"Time travel?" he asked, disbelieving.

"Yep," the Doctor said. "So what do you say? You up for that date?"

"I guess so," Steve answered. He didn't think the Doctor could actually bring him back, but at this point, he had nothing to lose.

"When to, then?"

"About two weeks after I, uh..." Steve trailed off. "She won't be there, anyway. She thinks I'm dead."

"Peggy Carter?" the Doctor asked, looking at one of his screens. "She'll be there. The Stork Club, right? She never could bring herself to miss it."

Steve didn't bother questioning how he knew this. He had a much more important thing to ask.

"If you can bring me back, can't I just stay there?"

The Doctor paused for a moment before answering him.

"No. I'm sorry. There are fixed points in time, and you crashing that ship is one of them. As is you waking up in the twenty first century. You can't live back then, it would... It just can't happen," the Doctor explained in a sympathetic tone.

"So I get a dance, and then I have to leave her? One night?" The Doctor could hear the pain in Steve's voice.

"I'm sorry, I really am. But it's better than nothing, isn't it? You get a chance to say goodbye."

"Eight o'clock sharp. I can't be late," Steve said quietly after a moment of silence.

"Eight o'clock it is then. Geronimo!"

The Doctor started flicking switches and pressing buttons and the TARDIS began to rumble. Steve grabbed a nearby railing to steady himself. It landed with a dull thud after a minute of shaking, making the noise Steve had heard when it appeared in his room.

"Do you want to change into something more, uh... dancey?" the Doctor asked awkwardly. Steve looked down at his plain, white t-shirt and combat pants.

"Right, yeah, I should do that," he muttered.

"I have a wardrobe. It's through there, first left, second right, third on the left, straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left."

"Okay," Steve said, wandering off down the corridor.

He came back about ten minutes later, wearing a simple, black suit. His hair was done neatly and he looked very nervous.

"Are you ready?" the Doctor asked.

"Not at all," Steve replied honestly. "But you know what? I'm Captain America. I can do this."

"No. You're Steve Rogers and she's Peggy Carter," the Doctor corrected him. "Go and get her."

Steve exhaled deeply, closing his eyes as the Doctor opened the door. They were on an abandoned road beside the club, where nobody would notice the TARDIS. A small window looked into the club.

"Be back as soon as you can. I'd rather not go in there, I lost a bet with that soldier at the bar, the one with the odd hat. Won't be pretty if he sees me..." the Doctor said, running his hand through his hair nervously. Steve chuckled.

"I'll see you. Thanks, by the way," he said.

"No problem," the Doctor replied.

Steve walked through the cold, night air to the door of the Stork Club. Snow was beginning to settle on the pavement, and some fell on his hair as he approached the door. He took another deep breath before opening it. Then he entered.

Standing alone by the jukebox, looking truly heartbroken, was Peggy. She hadn't noticed anyone coming in. She wore a long, black dress that hugged her figure. The colour of mourning, Steve noted sadly. Her hair was tied up in a bun, but a few strands hung beside her face. Her lipstick was red, and it stood out against her warm skin and the black of her dress.

Steve approached her slowly. All the people and music around him dulled to a blur. In his eyes, there was only Peggy. She looked up just as he reached her. Her eyes immediately teared up.

"St - Steve?" she choked out. He managed a smile.

"It's me," he whispered. "I'm not late, am I?" Peggy didn't answer. She just let the tears begin to fall. Steve wiped them away gently.

"I don't understand! How are you here?" she asked.

"A friend helped me out," he explained.

"Oh, Steve! You're really here, it's really you," she said, placing her hand against his cheek. He put his hand over hers, revelling in the feeling.

"You know something, Peggy? I think I've found the right partner," Steve whispered. "May I?" He asked, his hand just centimetres away from her waist. She nodded silently, standing up straighter. She placed her free hand on his shoulder, and they moved their already joined hands away from his face.

"Now then," she said. "Just follow me."

Slowly but surely, Peggy showed him how to dance. He stepped on her feet a few times at the beginning, as can be expected. But soon he moved freely with her, feeling the music in time with their gentle movements. Neither of them really had anything to say to the other, they were both so shocked he was there. Peggy's tears never really stopped flowing. Steve wasn't even sure how the Doctor had gotten him there in the first place. The only thing he was sure of was that he was in love with Miss Peggy Carter.

They danced for hours, until people gradually started to leave. They stopped then, and Peggy rested her head against Steve's chest.

"I can't believe you're really here," she said.

"Neither can I," he chuckled. Then his smile faded. "I'm only here for tonight," he whispered. "I can't stay. It's - it's complicated, but I can't," he rambled, feeling helpless.

Peggy lifted her head and looked up at him, her feelings clear in the sparkle of her eyes. Deciding that words wouldn't accurately express his own feelings, Steve leant down and kissed her. It felt warm and soft and _right_, her lips against his. When he pulled away, he looked into her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely, his own eyes tearing up now. "I'm sorry I can't stay."

"Don't be. We had one more night than we were meant to, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world," she replied. Steve smiled sadly at her.

"I love you, Peggy Carter," he whispered. She returned his smile weakly through her tears.

"And I love you," she said. Then she kissed him again. They stayed like that for a long while before Steve had to go.

"I'm so sorry," he said again. A single tear slid down his cheek, which Peggy wiped away.

"I'll never really understand why you're here," she admitted quietly. "Or why you had to leave."

"I'm not leaving you, not ever. I'm right here," he said, placing her hand on the left side of her chest. Her mouth curved into a very small smile.

"Goodbye, Steve," she said softly.

"Goodbye," he replied, his voice cracking. They kissed one last time, quickly, before he left. He couldn't stand to watch her cry anymore; it broke him.

The Doctor was waiting with the TARDIS door open. He half-smiled at Steve, knowing he wouldn't want to talk. Steve was about to walk off down the corridor again as soon as he entered, but paused when the Doctor spoke. Steve didn't turn around to face him.

"You don't need to hide yourself, you know," the Doctor said. "Crying doesn't mean you're weak. It means you're alive."

"I just need to change," Steve mumbled.

He returned a few minutes later, and they spent the journey back in silence. When they landed, the Doctor opened the door without a word. Steve's room looked so dark and lonely to him after a night spent in Peggy's company.

"Thank you, Doctor," Steve said sincerely.

"You're very welcome," the Doctor replied.

Steve stepped out of the TARDIS into his small room. He looked around at the unfamiliar walls, thinking it would take him a long time to get used to them.

"Doctor, why were you so willing to help me?" he asked suddenly, turning around.

"Because I know what it's like to lose someone, and I'd give anything for one last dance," the Doctor replied sadly.

"Thank you," Steve said again. The Doctor smiled in reply and closed the TARDIS door.

Steve lay back down on his bed as the funny blue box faded from the room, leaving him alone in the darkness.


End file.
